Nanoerythrocyte-like, dodecahedron and nanoparticle HoVO4 with high uniform size had been successfully synthesized on a large scale by a simple and facile complex agent assisted hydrothermal method. The nanoerythrocyte-like HoVO4 was characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and photoluminescence. The possible formation mechanism of the nanoerythrocyte-like HoVO4 was proposed. The PL results showed the pure HoVO4 products with different size and morphology displayed the same emission band with diverse relative intensity under the excitation of 455 nm and the red emission transition F-5(5) -> I-5(8) was the most prominent group, whose peak situated at 659 nm. Furthermore, this general and facile method may be applied in the synthesis of other lanthanide compounds with nanoerythrocyte-like morphology. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.